PASTORS: LET US NOT LEGITIMISE COHABITATION

MBABANE – “Let us not regulate wrongdoing. Legitimising cohabiting is resultant to moral failure.”

This was the submission made by the Executive members of Eswatini Inter-Denominational Ministers’ Fellowship (EIMF), which is a council of pastors in ministries, on registration of cohabitations. This was during their stakeholder consultations with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs’ Portfolio Committee on the Marriage Bill, 2022 and the Matrimonial Property Bill, 2022. The church body, through their President, Pastor Luke Mnisi, stated that they had extensively and comprehensively scrutinised these Bills and the submissions they were to make were based on lengthy consultation with other members of the body and the members of the various churches, which fell under the council.

Under the clause on registration of cohabitations, Mnisi submitted that the issue went against the grain of moral standards of both Eswatini culture and Christianity values. “While we appreciate the content of the Eswatini Constitution which espouses freedom of religious association, we however, feel that certain moral standards are indicative of the moral compass of the nation. Allowing such low moral standards is tantamount to eroding the beautiful future of emaSwati as people with moral standards drawn from both culture and religion. Legitimising cohabiting should be resultant to moral failure and compromise to compensate a partner who had been subjected to such against their will,” submitted the president of the EIMF.

Perversion

He stated that the Bill should rather state circumstances under which cohabiting could be accepted otherwise it should not be seen to be encouraging such that neither should it be seen condoning societal perversion. “The Bill can also create pathways for partners who wish to change their cohabiting status into formal and legal marriage status,” he stated. According to EIMF, in the clause on the marital power of the husband, the backdrop of not permitting the husband to assume unilateral power on the disposal of assets was well appreciated and welcomed as it was designed to curb on the ever increasing abuse wives were subjected to. “However, this should not be done at the expense of vacating the God-given headship of the male man (husband). This is a divinely ordained family leadership structure and tampering with it will erode the family structure as was intended by God our Creator,” stated Pastor Mnisi.
He said what the Bill should address were the powers and limits thereof of the leader rather than removing leadership. It was further stated that like any other institution without proper leadership structure, the institution of marriage would suffer.

“This should come out clear in the Bill, there should be no ambiguity about it,” submitted the EIMF president. “An important question to consider is what informs the reviews of our Acts ad Bills? Are we driven by trends and happenings or are we driven by empirical evidence through formal or informal research? Responding to this question is of great importance as it defines our disposition of being subjective or objective, reactive or proactive,” it was stated. Pastor Mnisi said one could only hope that such reviews were informed by empirical evidence and hence, were likely to be comprehensive and responsive not only to the now but the future challenges. Another amendment suggested by EIMF was the issue of traditional marriage officers.

Marriage

Mnisi stated that regarding the issue of traditional marriage officers, because of the role played by chiefs and tindvuna in unifying the community, it was advisable that they be excluded from being marriage officers. “This will mitigate the conflict of interest that may arise as they are expected to be overseers and custodians of Eswatini culture, including Swazi Law and Custom. They can be consulted for clarity on complex issues and pass judgment of related matters with their teams of counsels,” stated Mnisi. He further said the Bill could identify other traditional leaders who could be trained to administer and facilitate the registration of marriages, particular the Swazi Law and Custom marriages. Another amendment by the Christian organisation was regarding the powers of the minister to recognise any other marriage in the land, which they stated weakened the contents and bindings of this Bill.

“Such a disposition does not protect the incumbent and exposes him or her to be susceptible to being corruptible. The premises of marriage are clear – all citizens and residents of the kingdom should be subjected to those confines. The integrity of the minister’s office should be jealously protected from any form of prejudice that may arise because of issues left to personal judgment. Today we may have an incumbent aligning to certain values which we are comfortable with, tomorrow it might not be so, as the writing stipulates ‘any other marriage,’ this does not exclude same sex marriages or incest marriages.”

Mnisi said this issue made the Bill susceptible to misuse and abuse. Under the clause on estate distribution the pastor highlighted that there was a growing inhuman trend of forcing widowers to vacate the family house upon losing the spouse, especially if that widower wishes to remarry. This becomes a bigger challenge if the widower is aged. “The Bill needs to look at this issue in the spirit of protecting all parties involved, in some cases the children born from the previous marriage are all adults yet they hold powers and preferences on what the surviving spouse should or shouldn’t do in or with the family house,” said Mnisi.

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